Third Meeting of States Parties

to Convention on Migrant Workers

2^nd Meeting (AM)

MEETING OF STATES PARTIES TO MIGRANT WORKERS CONVENTION

ELECTS OFFICERS, FIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERS

The States parties to the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families elected a Chairperson, two Vice-Chairpersons and five Committee members, as it held its third meeting at Headquarters this morning.

The Convention, which entered into force on 1 July 2003, seeks to prevent and eliminate the exploitation of migrant workers.  It provides a set of binding international standards to address the treatment, welfare and human rights of both documented and undocumented migrants, as well as obligations and responsibilities of sending and receiving States.

States parties report to the 10-member Committee on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families on steps they have taken to implement the Convention within a year of its entry into force for the concerned States, and thereafter every five years.  Under the treaty, a State party may recognize the Committee’s competence to receive communications from individuals within that State’s jurisdiction, who claim their rights have been violated.

Opening today’s meeting, Ngonlardje Mbaidjol, Director of the New York Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, noted that the number of States that had ratified or acceded to the Convention had increased from 34 to 37.  “The Convention can only be an effective instrument if it has a membership which is representative of all regions of the world and includes both countries of origin and of destination,” he said.  While the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights would continue to work towards that goal, he encouraged States parties to promote the Convention as well.

He added that the Committee had received initial reports from nine States parties and that it had examined four of them, from Egypt, Ecuador, Mali and Mexico.  To be considered in 2008 were the reports of Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, El Salvador and Syria.  However, 25 other States were now overdue in presenting their initial reports, Mr. Mbaidjol said, and they should strive to do so without delay in order to enhance the essential monitoring function of the Committee.

The meeting’s new Chairperson, Miloš Prica ( Bosnia and Herzegovina), was then elected by acclamation.  Next, the meeting adopted its agenda and elected, by acclamation, Lebohang Fine Maema ( Lesotho), Fazli Çorman ( Turkey) and Luz Melon ( Argentina), as Vice-Chairpersons.

Following those actions, it elected by secret ballot, Ahmed Hassan El-Borai (Egypt), Abdelhamid El Jamri (Morocco), Elizabeth Cubias Medina (El Salvador), Francisco Alba (Mexico), and Myriam Poussi (Burkina Faso), to fill terms that would expire on 31 December 2007.  With the exception of Poussi, all had been incumbent members of the Committee.

The other members of the Committee, whose terms would expire on 31 December 2009, are Jose Serrano Brillantes ( Philippines), Anamaria Dieguez Arevalo ( Guatemala), Prasad Kariyawasam ( Sri Lanka), Mehmet Sevim ( Turkey), and Azad Taghizade ( Azerbaijan).

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For information media • not an official record